Andy Beaudoin, the Simcoe-Grey Conservative Association President, wasn't particularly fond of my columns related to Ms Guergis.
Yesterday, the Alliston Herald published a letter from Rob Holliday in response to Beaudoin that speaks from the perspective of someone who voted for the Conservative Party in Simcoe-Grey. As the letter is not posted online it is set out below:
When the day came to vote in the 2008 Canadian federal election I felt strongly about two things. The first was that it was my duty to exercise my right to vote. The second was that Stephen Harper was the only leader worth voting for in this election.
For these two reasons I very grudgingly marked an X next to Helena Guergis' name on my ballot. I say very grudgingly because my view (and many others I talked to) of Helena Guergis is in agreement with that of Kevin Kemp. However in the Canadian voting system, in order to vote for Mr. Harper as leader, I had to vote for Ms. Guergis as MP.
I'm sure Mr. Beaudoin is well ware of how the voting system works and it is disappointing that he would misrepresent the 30,000 votes cast for the Conservatives as evidence that all these people support Ms. Guergis. 30,000 people supported the Conservatives in our riding but I haven't personally met one who did it because of Ms. Guergis.
Rob Holliday
Stephen Fishman of Wasaga Beach had a letter to similar effect that included the following excerpt: "...the so-called attacks against Helena Guergis were not based on partisan politics, but on her record as our MP."
Ironically, Beaudoin appears to have borrowed liberally from my November 7, 2008 column in a letter to the Collingwood Enterprise Bulletin. It's great to see that Andy is a regular reader!
